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HBO fully adopted all of AHA’s rigorous safety guidelines before production resumed”

HBO statement

It listed a series of precautions taken including that each horse was “limited to three runs per day and was rested in between those runs”.

In a statement released to the New York Observer, HBO said filming was suspended after the second accident “while the production worked with AHA and racing industry experts to adopt additional protocols specifically for horse racing sequences”.

They included “the hiring of an additional veterinarian and radiography of the legs of all horses being used by the production”.

“HBO fully adopted all of AHA’s rigorous safety guidelines before production resumed.”

But, in a blog on its website, Peta said: “Perhaps if producers had considered the proved safety protocols that we would have suggested, these horses would still be alive.”

It added that “two dead horses in a handful of episodes exemplify the dark side of using animals in television, movies, and ads”.

It said it was now in discussions with HBO “about how to prevent even more deaths on the show”.